Bank Australia presents a discussion about what you can do to make your home purchase, build or renovation both affordable and sustainable.

Making a home that is comfortable to live in and energy efficient to run needn’t come with a high upfront cost, and will improve housing affordability over the life of a building. Homeowners share their experience buying, building or renovating a home with low energy bills and a low impact on the planet, showing that a sustainable, affordable home is achievable. What does affordability mean to these homeowners – is it just about the upfront cost or is it about the future cost of running the home? What’s worth spending money on to make your home more sustainable and efficient to run, and where are the money wasters in any project? And find out about Bank Australia’s Clean Energy Home, that’s making sustainable homes even more affordable to households.

Speakers

Deepti and Christian Wetjen, Wision House

Deepti and Christian are both architects based in Perth and owner-builders of the Wision House in WA, featured on the cover of Sanctuary 52. This passive solar straw bale house, constructed for under $350,000, has been designed to require no heating or cooling, and to accommodate two families within the single house for flexible, affordable living. They will share their experience and lessons learnt on the design and construction of the home, and also their professional insight into sustainable design. Deepti is an Associate with Cox Architecture and Christian is an Associate at Site Architecture Studio in Perth.

www.sustainablehouseday.com Wision House

Laura Ryan, Impossible House

Laura is the owner of the Impossible House in Sydney’s inner west, where she is undertaking the renovation and transformation of her tiny workers cottage to be a light-filled, self-sufficient home. Laura wants to show that it can be done for the same cost, or less, than other renovations or builds. There have been many challenges along the way including the small 104 square metre site, the difficult site access and the many experts over the years who have declared the project nigh impossible, but Laura has a goal, a plan and a committed team of experts on the project.

www.sustainablehouseday.com Impossible House

Daniel Breves

Daniel shares his story as a first home owner, purchasing a townhouse in Melbourne’s western suburbs for an affordable price in 2018, and then retrofitting it to be more energy efficient. Daniel and his wife Manu draught-sealed gaps and installed all-electric appliances, switching off the gas connection earlier this year for even further savings on bills. With these improvements, and the installation of a solar PV system they are saving around $2000 a year on energy bills and reducing their impact on the environment. And they still managed to find a property with the backyard they were seeking to grow their own produce.

MC - Jacinta Cleary, Renew
www.renew.org.au

Tickets